Those calling for the censorship of Dana Schutz’s “Open Casket” will be happy to know that the painting has been removed from view. They’ll likely be disappointed to know it’s for a logistical reason as boring as a water leak. The real story here seems to be that the museum’s brand-spanking-new downtown digs is taking on water. Cue the Titanic/iceberg jokes. [Hyperallergic]

Melania Trump’s official White House portrait is here, and it kinda looks like she’s an out-of-focus hologram. The internet is having lots of fun with this one. [New York Magazine]

A cast believed by some to be from a long-lost Degas mold will go on view in London. Meanwhile in Hong Kong, Sotheby’s just proved Basquiats are hot commodities no matter the continent. Expect to see more of his work heading to Asian private collections. [The Telegraph]

Artist and blogger Greg Allen has started a Kickstarter project, OurGuernica, After Our Picasso. The purpose of this initiative: raising funds to commission an anonymous Chinese artist to paint Angela Merkel giving Ivanka Trump side-eye (photo above) in the style of former-president-now-painter George W. Bush. That’s a lot of layers to unpack for what is essentially a meme. [Artspace]

This sounds like so much fun. The Museum of Sex has opened a fully-functional pop-up disco bar for their exhibition of Bill Bernstein’s New York nightlife photos. [The New York Times]

According to Mark Hudson, the Tate Britain’s Queer British Art 1861-1967 “begs the question of whether we’re in for art that tells the story of homosexuality in Britain over the 150 years leading up to the legal landmark, or art by artists who just happen to be gay. Judging by the first room, devoted to the late 19th century Aesthetic Movement, the exhibition might have been better titled Screamingly Camp Art.” Sounds like a missed opportunity all-around. [The Telegraph]

Bad news (for those of us prone to soul-crushing fair fatigue): Brooklyn is getting a Frieze Week art fair. The good news: it will be an off-shoot of SPRING/BREAK, focused on large-scale public installations and environments. SPRING/BREAK is one of the only fairs we can can handle more of. [artnet News]

Snøhetta’s Lascaux IV Caves Museum in southern France is open and looks (as expected) like an anthropology museum from the future. Their treatment of the cave painting reproductions is a really interesting display strategy. For preservation reasons, you can’t visit the real thing, but the museum has managed hyper-accurate reproductions that never try to trick you into thinking they’re the originals. [Dezeen]

The art market seems to be doing pretty well right now. Lots of collectors purchased art at the auctions and Katya Kazakina reports that while many collectors took their time and put art on hold, they did actually pull the trigger. [Bloomberg]

This pro-Trump media sphere appears to have not only successfully set the agenda for the conservative media sphere, but also strongly influenced the broader media agenda, in particular coverage of Hillary Clinton. [Columbia Journalism Review]

Claire Voon covered the “Show Mein” controversy that took place at SPRING/BREAK. A nice story here. Many found the “Show Mein” concept, which played off the idea of Chinese fast food insensitive because it feed into asian stereotypes. However, the show organizers, JONALDDUDD, were receptive to the feedback given to them in an open letter by collective AN/OTHER NY, and productive dialogue came out of the dispute. Good! [Hyperallergic]

There is an affordable housing boom in the Bronx according to the New York Times. [The New York Times]

Christian Viveros-Faune sees all kinds of political work at NADA this year. Just going to point out that it’s possible to see a trend of virtually anything in a fair displaying thousands of works of art. My own observations of the fair did not lead me to the same conclusions. There was more political work than usual, but that’s not saying much for a fair whose exhibitors rarely, if ever, showcase political art. [artnet News]

I haven’t been to the Art on Paper fair yet, but this Hyperallergic report on the massive hanging paper towers ensures I’ll go. [Hyperallergic]]

Not sure how I feel about the firms who are courting the contract for the design of Donald Trump’s wall between Mexico and the United States. “If it’s going to happen, we would like a piece of it,” says Jimmy Benavente, a project coordinator at Halbert. “We try not to bring our political beliefs into it.” In other words, money first, everyone else second. Luckily there are some humane design concepts that are cited in this piece, but it saddens me that there are people working on solving problems that never needed to exist. (Also, what are the chances the Trump administration is going to pick the humane design?) [Culture: High & Low]

Tattooing in art contexts seems to be on the rise (based on two examples I can think of but I’m certain there are others). I saw a booth at SATELLITE in Miami that included a tattoo artist offering tattoos and there was just a live tattoo session at the Grand Rapids Art Museum. Not sure if there’s anything to say about this, though, past observing that it’s happening. [MLive]

A fantastic review critical of the 2nd Avenue Subway Line design. “This is not the subway as a work of art, but a subway saved from dullness by works of art.” Critic Alexandra Lange does give a pass to those terribly cheesy Vic Munic murals picturing kids with balloons, though, but we’ll forgive her this one transgression, since the larger criticism was art work placement—exhibition design crit makes an appearance! [Curbed]

The curator-centric fair fair SPRING/BREAK is back. This time, they’ve moved to a Times Square office building with the theme “Black Mirror.”
That translates to plenty of identity-centric work. Molly Rhinestones and Harrison Curley went to check it out:

Harrison: This booth is an immersion to your favorite dreamgirl room from your favorite princess fantasy…

Molly: There is always a booth I walk in and think “I have a crush on this artist” and Ben Sisto’s was it this year…

With its emphasis on supporting artists and curators rather than commercial galleries, SPRING/BREAK Art Show is typically the highlight of the exhausting Armory week frenzy. While the verdict is still out on many of the other fairs, I can confidently report that this one does not disappoint.

Oddly enough, the reason for this, seems to be at the nexus of the fair’s identity—artist-focused, themed curation. The official theme is Black Mirror, which as the curators describe it, is about seeing oneself through a lens. But for this show, that usually translates into ruminations on demographics and politics or rather, politics based on demographics. It’s reflective of a time in which most of us in the arts community are far more terrified by anything the president has to say or do than by the technological dystopia presented in the Netflix blockbuster Black Mirror.

It is hell week for the art world. What used to be referred to as “Armory Week” is now a beast spanning more art fairs than anyone has time or energy for. Now that NADA has joined the fray, it’s likely going to be more stressful, but at least slightly less soul-crushing.

To help navigate this mess, we’ve picked out the week’s highlights: the art fairs you really should see, as well as gallery, DIY, and museum events to help recover from the convention center lighting.

These events include an artist talk from photographer Elle Perez at Daniel Cooney Fine Art on Tuesday, a peek at Georgia O’Keeffe’s personal style at the Brooklyn Museum on Friday, and the Silent Barn’s Paper Jazz Small Press Festival all weekend long in Bushwick.

Wear comfortable shoes. Bring aspirin. We’ll get through this together.

Why were so many female artists written out of art history? It’s an unfortunate fact of most museum collections, but the Guerrilla Girls are making a dent in the art-historical glass ceiling. [The Guardian]

Right, on! NADA is donating half of its ticket sales this year to the ACLU. Acronym orgs unite! [artnet News]

Katie Alice Greer, singer of the D.C. punk band Priests and a solo artist under her initials, K.A.G., talks about why all art is political. Lots of great comments in this interview, but this really stands out, “To me, successful art isn’t someone wagging their finger at you or spelling it out on a chalkboard. I mean, maybe it is, if it’s literature or the written word. Successful art you have to unpack, because it’s interrogating you or what your idea of reality is, or what the world means, or is very beautiful or very complicated, very ugly.” [The Creative Independent]

The city wants to build housing over top of Sunnyside Yard, the massive train yard. This would represent a huge new neighborhood in Queens, but the feasibility study, which paints a rosy picture for this new development, doesn’t include any mention of increased transit options or new hospitals. Also New York State governor Andrew Cuomo controls the MTA portion of the yard and the Feds (Trump) control the Amtrak portion. We may not see this plan come together for another a 100 years. [Crain’s New York]

A brief (read, long and comprehensive) history of art collectives in New York City’s Chinatown. [Hyperallergic]

The SPRING/BREAK art fair says good-bye to their old haunt at the post office, and will take over two floors of an office building in Times Square. [ARTnews]

Walking around SPRING/BREAK this Saturday seemed indicative of a watershed moment. The artist-centric movement we’ve been tracking for the last several years is finally gaining more visibility and commercial success and no where is that more evident than this fair.

Located on the administrative floors at Moynihan Station (above the main post office), over 100 curated projects took over once occupied office space. These rooms were painted, wallpapered and filled with weird, temporary installations of fake apartments, medical institutions and cut out gardens. They also included paintings, collages and any other medium you can think of. Meanwhile, lines of fair goers wrapped around the building waiting to get in—even from the outside the excitement was palpable.

When the curator becomes the primary product, nobody wins. With 800 artists to 100 curators, the flashiest booths naturally win out at SPRING/BREAK. We picked a handful of booths which deserve a longer look.